brody is off to nebraska with his dad next weekend so this weekend we took a break from life and just had fun with each other. he has never been on a trip without me before...so next weekend, you can find me in a ditch crying.

we've spent so much time house hunting lately... for a newer, bigger home that we seemingly will never find. so we are on a break from the stress. and i am learning to be content in our little two bedroom home with no office for james. no office for james means the entire house is his office. the desk in the living room. the side tables. the coffee tables. the floor. the dining room table. everywhere. his explanation is "babe! i am trying to run a business out of this house". so we are trying to be content in our little two bedroom office home bc there is nothing but love here. and paperclips.

so moving on, this moose was really hungry. bro bro can tell you the names of any insects...but clearly we need to work on our warm-blooded mammals.

this pumpkin patch princess chased brody down to give him hugs & kisses. he tried to duck & run but she caught him. i think james was hoping for a kiss too bc he didn't run.

so the pumpkin princess was super sweet...

but...

my dear brody - if you ever bring a girl home that looks like this, it will not end well for you. your momma is nice but she's really judgmental. ok?

we waited in the face painting line for over an hour. he wanted a spider and a web on his face. this pic was taken about 2 seconds before the tears started flowing. did you know that it is not cool to have webs on your forehead? it's not. so 1 hour, $4 and a mad face painter later, we got a wet paper towel and wiped it all off.

james isn't gone from us much. rarely, i should say. if we are home, he is home. but last night he had to work late so bro & i were on our own from about 6pm until 9pm. no big deal. we were on our own for a long time before james and i sometimes still crave alone time with my little guy. it's the only time he will openly admit that he loves a girl, the only time he will sit on my lap and let me kiss & hug him without telling me to stop, the only time he feels free to tell me anything bc in his little mind there are no men or boys around to impress...it's just him and his momma.

after a nerf war, hide-n-seek, dinner, racing cars, a bath and another nerf war...we decided to spend some time working our left-handed ABCs. trying to write the capital ones and the lower case ones, trying to keep them in between the lines of the penmanship paper, trying to differentiate a lower case b and a lowercase d....

brody asked me where james was oh...about...100 times.

so james finally comes home.

after some hugs, brody tells him all about our night.

then he says "and i wrote a letter"

(i don't remember this, btw, i just remember a lower case i with no dot and and upside down m. or maybe that was a w in the wrong spot...)

"yep, i wrote a letter" he says...

it said

"i miss james"

a walkie talkie conversation...

mom, we are playing hide-n-seek and don't find me, ok?

ok

and don't look behind here, ok?

don't look behind where?

the white chair. do not look behind the white chair.

mom, can you hurry up? i need to get home.

i'm trying, bro, but i can't help the stop lights.

just pretend they are green and keep going.

we can't. it's illegal.

can you just tell God to make them all green?

dear God. please make all the lights turn green. amen.

it's all men. not amen. all men. all the men. all men.

no, it's amen.  not all men. you know what. you tell God.

ok. dear God. this car gives me a headache! all men

we choose to do small things with great love.



...like a picnic in the park instead of a huge meal.

...like skipping bath time and staying out past bedtime so we can play together.



...like being part of the fun instead of just watching the fun.

something he will remember.

something small.

but something great.

(ps - i am not sure it is fair for james to hide from us in a tree)